The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 169

EXPOSITION. cxxxix. 16 : lee. iv. 3; Dan. xii, 1; Phil. iv. CHAPTER IX. 3). It was to be the work of this scribe Ver. 1.-B:e cried, eto. The voice comes, (ver. 4) to mark such o.s were for death to ss before, from the human form, seen as e. death, such as were for life to life. The theophany, in the midst of the Divine glory. LXX., misunderste.nding the Hebrew or Cause them that have charge over the city. following a different text, gives, not' "e. The noun is an abstract plural, commonly writer's ink-horn," but " e. girdle of rendered "visitation" (Isa. x. 3; Jer. xi. 23, sapphire." With all the precision of one who and elsewhere). Here, however, it clearly knew every inch of the temple courts, the st,ands for persons (just e.s we use "the priest-prophet sees the visite.nts take their watch" for " the watchmen"), and is so station beside the brazen altar, probably, as used in Isa. Ix. 17; 2 Kings xi. 18 (comp. they came from the north, on the north side eh. xliv. 11). The persons addressed are of it. called "men," but they are clearly thought Ver. 3.-Was gone up; better, went up. of as superhuman; like the angels who came The prophet saw the process as well as the to Sodom (Gen. xix. 1); like the angel with result. The "glory of the Lord" which he the drawn sword in 2 Sam. xxiv. 16; 1 had seen ( eh. viii. 4) by the northern gate Chron. xxi. 16. His destroying weapon. rose from its cherub-throne (we note the use The word clearly implies something dif- of the singular t,o express the unity of the ferent from a sword, but corresponds in its fourfold form), as if to direct the e.ction of his vagneness to the Hebrew. In ver. 2 the ministers, to the threshold of the "house." Hebrew for "slaughter-weapon" implies an This may be connected also with the thought instrument for crashing into fragments, pro- that the norme.l a.biding-place of the pre- bably an axe or mace. A cognate word in sence of the Lord had been " between the Jer. li 20 is translated "battle-axe," e.nd cherubim" (Ps. lxxx. 1) of the mercy-seat, the LXX. gives that meaning here, as also but that thought seems in the present does the margin of the Revised Version. instance to be in the background, and I Ver. 2.-Behold, six men, etc. The me.n adopt the former interpretation as prefer- clothed with linen brings the number up to able. the sacred number seven, as in Zech. iv. Ver. 4.-Set a mark upon the foreheads, 10; Rev. i. 16, 20; xv. 6. He is over them etc. The command reminds us of that given rather than among them, and answers to the to the destroying angel in Exod. xii. 13, scribe who appears so frequently in Assyrie.n and has its earlier and later analogues in sculptures, as the secretary who counts the the mark set upon Ca.in (Gen. iv. 15), and prisoners that have been taken in battle. in the " sealing" of the servants of God in '.Chey come from the north, the region from Rev. vii. 3. Here, es in the last example, which the vision of eh. i. 4 had come, in the mark is set, not on the lintels of the door- which, in the nearer vision of eh. viii 4, the posts, but upon the " foreheads" of the men. prophet had seen the same glorious presence. And the mark is the letter tau, in old Hebrew, They appear, i.e., SB issuing from the Divine that of a cross + , and like the "mark " of JJresence t,o do their work of judgment. medireval and (in the case of the illiterate) Possibl v, as in J er. i, there may be an allu- of modem usage, seeir.s t,o have been used sive reference t,o the fact that the Chai- as a signature, and is rightly so translated in deans as the e.ctual instruments of their the Revised Version of Job xxxi. 35. Jewish judgdient, came from the same region. The writers have accounted for its being thus gate in question was buil~ by Jotham (2 used, either (1) from its being the last letter Kings xv. 35). The captam of the band 1s of tbe Hebrew alphabet, end thus denoting arrayed in the "white linen" of the hosts of completeness, or (2) from its being the first heaven e.nd of the priests 011. earth (1ro311p11s letter of the word th<YTah (Law); or (3) in the LXX.; comp. Lev. vi. 10; xvi. 4; eh. from its standing in the same position in xliv. 17; Dan. x. 5; xii. 6). A writer's ink- tbe Hebrew word for "thou she.It live." horn. Through all the changes of Ee.stem Christian writers (Origen, in loc.; Tertul- life this has been the outward sign of the lie.n, 'Adv. Mercion,' iii. 22) have not unna- scribe's office. Here it is obviously con- turally seen in it e. quesi-prqphetic reference nect.ed with the oft-recurring thought of to the sign of the cross as used by Chris- the books of life e.nd death in the chancery tians, end it is possible the.t the use of of heaven (Exod. :uxii. 32; Ps. lxix. 28 ; that sign in baptism may have origin- orr. 1x. 1-11.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 163